andy warhol’s time capsules

7.14.09 | 4:26pm

Over the course of thirty years, Andy Warhol filled over 600 cardboard boxes with objects from his daily life, from photographs and newspaper clippings to artworks and telephone messages. He used a marker to write the date or contents on the outside, then sent the boxes to storage rooms.

The array of boxes, which are all the same size, are themselves quite beautiful. Actually, it is because they are all the same size that they are beautiful and not as daunting as different size boxes, which look messy and haphazard. Warhol figured out the perfect simple, cheap, unfussy, visually-pleasing method for collecting just about anything: uniform containers in multiples. His time capsule idea works as a sort of deconstructed scrapbook, way easier than all cutting and pasting, but with the same effect: an archive, to revisit times, or leave intact for others to see.

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